Data Protection

All Be StepWise associates belong to their own professional bodies that require their members to conform to their codes of professional conduct and ethics. These professional bodies monitor their members’understanding of changes in the law, compliance with their ethical codes, and fulfillment of their requirements for clinical supervision and continual professional development (CPD).

Alison O’Mahony, founder and owner of Be Stepwise, belongs to the British Association of Counselling Psychologists (BACP) https://www.bacp.co.uk

The Be StepWise website complies with BACP requirements.

Data protection

The Database

The database consists of a list of the names and email addresses of clients and workshop participants, people who have used the email service, people who have signed up to be kept informed, and telephone numbers of those who have used our telephone answeramessage, unless they have subsequently requested to unsubscribe.

Be StepWise will never share your personal contact details with any other party. The database is privately managed rather than managed by one of the big platforms.

To unsubscribe: Click on 'reply' to any email, type in ‘unsubscribe please' and then click the 'send' button. Or say ‘unsubscribe please’ using the contact box from the website using the email address you want to unsubscribe from.

Confidentiality

For: Email corresponders.

And for fee paying Clients: One-to-one, couple and family therapy, workshop participants, telephone and Skype consultations

Work is confidential to the client/correspondent. However, there are exceptions.

If I receive information about child abuse, life-threatening behaviour or serious unreported crime, I am obliged to report it to the appropriate body. Should this situation arise, I will endeavor to tell the client before reporting.

From time to time I will discuss a client in supervision. In these circumstances, confidentiality remains secure within the professional confidentiality agreement between my supervisor and me, the supervisee. As a professional I ensure I receive regular, normally monthly, supervision. My supervisor’s responsibilities include being mindful of professional ethics as well as assisting me in my work.

For email correspondents:Correspondents who send information to the Be StepWise email response service do so of their own choice. The email comes onto the server of a password protected computer and to an email account belonging to one person, Alison O’Mahony. The information received is used for the purposes of replying to that email and any other subsequent emails received from that sender. The email is never shared with others except for reasons explained in the section on confidentiality (see above).

For fee-paying clients: One-to-one, couple and family therapy, telephone and Skype consultation clients.

The client must sign a Be StepWise service contract before any meeting or consultation. The contract includes information on data storage protection. Brief, minimal, anonymized, non-attributed notes (normally less than one page of A4) are made post-session and filed. These notes are used for supervision and for helping me, the practitioner, with continuity between sessions and for thinking about the work. No electronic records are made. No information is shared except for reasons explained in the section on confidentiality (see above). Notes are kept for as long as required by BACP, and no longer. A sample service contract is available on request.